Malta Luqa Airport. Buses and best taxi companies in Malta

Malta positively impressed me with its transportation network – if I wasn’t tight on time I would save so much money using public busses, not taxis. Well, at least I have a lot of experience to share with you info about all ways of commuting around the island 😉 And especially on the ways of getting from and to the Malta Airport.

Below you can find the most commonly used ways of getting from Malta airport to other parts of the island & Gozo. As well you can check out the information about travelling the island by public bus and private taxis.

Malta Airport Taxi

My choice was taxi, booked by the company I rented my apartment from. They cheated a bit, otherwise I would book myself, however that’s another story. To compare:

taxi booked by the rental company – 25 EUR – Luqa airport to Valletta

taxi booked on my own – 17 EUR – Valletta to Luqa airport

Not a bad difference on a single ride!

You can get a taxi in the airport directly, but ensure you agree on the price in advance. Me personally I prefer to book taxis online, find my favourite Maltese company below 🙂

Malta Airport Bus

The public transport schedule in Malta is a big mess – their web-site or app will show you a valid result only if you know precisely the stop name, and each stop (town or village, I mean) has 2 names – old-style and new style, you’ll be looking for a street’s English written name, but in maps you’ll find only the Maltese one, and vice versa.

So it’s not easy to understand if there is no one to advise you. For example I was explaining the bus routes in Malta to a Romanian couple staying confused at the bus terminal in Qawra.

The good part is that there are a lot of busses, they go frequently, and most of them depart & arrive on time. So it is possible to reach almost any point of the island by bus + walking 🙂

Talking about the Malta airport:

A single ticket costs 2 EUR or 1,5 EUR in winter season.

If you scroll down the time-table under the links below, press the expand all button to see all the stops.

X1 – will take you until Cirkewwa (the port on the north where you can hop on a ferry and get to Gozo or take a boat to Comino). It stops at Qawra, Saint Paul’s Bay, Mellieha etc.

X4 – final destination Valletta, but not the airport on the way back, so don’t get too relaxed and pay attention to stops’ names – yours is Hal Luqa, Airport 3. On its route it goes through the southern part of the island to and from the capital city.

Public transport & taxis in Malta

As I mentioned in my ‘Maltese story’, the taxi drivers are the most communicative and friendly people on the island! One of them was an owner of racing pidgin (which cost a lot!), he’s a member of local club and regularly they take the pidgins by boat to Sicily, then release them and wait in Malta for their arrival. The pidgin who arrives the first (they all have numbers on their feet) is the winner, and now everyone dreams to buy him out (the prizes for the 1st place are enormous). Another one recommended me to check the promotions for the ferries going to Sicily, he said it’s more fun there and after the season the tickets drop in price.

However, all these friendly guys with whom I had very informative conversations were from one single company – Malta hi cabs!

easy to book – you can make a reservation well in advance to ensure availability through app, website and by phone 24/7

easy to communicate – I never stayed waiting on the phone line long and the call-centre always called me to inform that the taxi arrived, or it will be late, or it will come sooner

precise – if they said the cab comes in 1h it can’t be more than 1h, it was actually always less 🙂 Once the driver waited for me for 45 min, because he was told I need a cab at 8 pm, but arrived at 7.

all the drivers – I’ve seen at least five of them, were polite, talkative and educated enough to have discussions on various topics (and sometimes I had the same driver for the second time and we already felt like good old friends)

Besides that, hicabs has a great offer for travellers (unfortunately, I found out about it from one of the drivers on my last night in Malta). You can have a private driver for 25 EUR/day (reconfirm the price with hicabs) and see the island in the most efficient way. This way I would be able to visit at least 7 locations per day, since places like Mdina, Rabat, Marsaxlokk, Dingli, Blue Grotto, Siggiewi don’t require staying there too long. You book a driver for 8h, pay 200 EUR and if it’s 3 of you it’s not expensive at all. Besides that you can book a driver with a van to fit up to 8 people, and of course hicabs are also helping you to schedule the itinerary, since they are locals and they know where to go & what to see 🙂

And this wasn’t an advertisement, they helped me so much in my short trip, that I even like hicabs more than uber 🙂

There is another taxi company I tried – eCABS – they were recommended by a popular Maltese blogger. I tried them once at Dingli cliffs, when hicabs said it would be 1h waiting time. eCABS promised 25 min, so of course, my time is precious!

In fact, they were first late for 10 min, when I called the call-centre back, then after promising 5 min more, I waited 20 min. So in fact it was exactly 1h of waiting.

But that wasn’t the biggest problem. Remember, how the driver brought me to Żurrieq, not to Blue Grotto, although I told where I go, and there is an auto road to the grotto. That was with eCABS.

So I don’t recommend them, but it’s good to have another service provider contacts.

Public bus

Checking the bus schedules is through the official website, and don’t waste you time on their app (unless they redo it), use the Routes & time-tables page ⇒ Search by Bus Stop Number or Bus Stop Name.

You can buy them online – they deliver abroad (paid), but don’t deliver to hotels in Malta, or buy it when in Malta in bus terminals.

Taxi in Gozo

I used Gozo Taxi Service and have very good experience with them (remember the driver giving me an umbrella from his car trunk? That was here!). I booked a cab on the evening before arrival to Gozo – from Victoria to Ramla Bay and then back to Mgarr ferry terminal. The total price was 30 EUR, and the company was very flexible since I changed the pick up time & place on the way back. They also offer 24/7 service and accept bookings via phone or facebook messenger.